Throw the car onto the Turnpike at Harrisburg, hook up with I-80 at the Ohio border and then take it all the way to South Bend. Six-hundred plus miles and Mapquest says it's 10 hours. I’m figuring, using “guy math,” it oughtta be closer to nine hours. I’ll be hitting the highway for the big ballgame this weekend. For sure, I will be paying the most I have ever paid to see a football game, sporting event, concert or possibly even for a dinner at Ruby Tuesday.

Meanwhile, check out this story by Morning Call sports writer Mark Wogenrich on the Penn State-Notre Dame rivalry. The series is tied 8-8-1, having last met in 1992 when the two ended a 12-year run. In that run, Penn State dominated, winning eight of the 12 games.

I remember reading somewhere, years ago, that for the 1982 game at South Bend, JoePa brought a highly ranked, talented and experienced team to Notre Dame Stadium. Before the game, when JoePa brought the Lions through the corridor or tunnel leading to the field, Notre Dame Coach Gerry Faust had his players line the corridor, too, so that Penn State would have to pass by the Irish on its way to the field. It was an effort to intimidate the Lions.JoePa, meanwhile, brought up the rear, and when he made it through the gauntlet of ND players, he saw Faust and said to him something to this effect: “This won’t help, you know.”And, of course it didn’t help the Irish. Penn State won, 24-14, on its way to its first national title.

BY THE WAY

Boy, they hyped that Miami-Florida State game on Monday night like it was a Super Bowl, and it turned out the game was as bad as a Super Bowl. What the hell has happened to those Sunshine State teams, particularly their offenses?